Monsters
by This Polar Noise
Summary: Almost a year after the events of Manhattan, Tony and Bruce find Loki barely alive outside the Tower. As he recovers, Loki realises he and Doctor Banner aren't that different... (developing Gammafrost) [rating currently for torture] {summary is bad, sorry...}
1. Prologue

**A/N This is eventually going to lead up to Loki/Bruce.**

**I know, least popular ship ever, but there was a very insistent plot bunny.**

**Includes the Avengers Tower 'fanon' and a headcanon that Tony and Pepper moved into there after the house got destroyed in IM3. Fairly short chapter but this is just the prologue.**

* * *

He was on Midgard again. That much was obvious from the stars and the buildings he could see despite his badly blurred vision.

Loki took shallow, shaking breaths through his nose, feeling blood running down his throat but unable to spit it out.

They'd laughed at him, chained down there, dying after almost a year of imprisonment and starvation. The Aesir, even the ones who'd once pretended to like him, had inflicted fresh excruciations. The people he'd once considered family had looked on impassively, letting them torture him. He was glad that Thor hadn't been there to watch. His brother, while reckless, would never be able to live with himself.

Then they'd left him here, of all places, where his descent into madness had taken him first time. The island of Manhattan, this time a street corner instead of a tower. He could still see that god-forsaken building directly above him. They'd delivered him right back into the hands of his enemies. He rolled over slightly in an attempt to sit up and groaned quietly through his stitched-up lips, more blood dripping from his lips into his throat as his mouth tried to open against the thick wires. The punishment for liars. The Allfather hadn't so much as blinked when he heard the suggestion for the torture.

Loki wanted to go home. He didn't know where home was any more but he knew he needed to be there. He was an outcast from everywhere he'd ever been. He'd been tortured on Asgard, become nothing better than a murderer on Midgard and he dreaded to think of what would happen if he ever went anywhere near Jotunheim again. He had nowhere to go and no-one to go with. He was completely alone and about to die on a strange planet where no-one would mourn him for the second time in several short years. But this time there would be no Thanos in his mind, controlling his pitiful thoughts and threatening him with even more pain.

Somewhere down the street, a light, shone out from the otherwise dark bottom floors of the building and a figure walked out through the strange sliding doors that seemed to be all over Midgard.

The figure walked towards a Midgardian vehicle parked near Loki and continued a conversation on one of the devices the mortals seemed so fond of.

It was Stark. Loki cowered back but the Man of Iron didn't seem to notice him.

"All I'm saying is that maybe if he stopped _acting_ like a pirate, maybe I'd stop comparing him to one... Yeah but you know Fury... Yeah... I still say get him the hat and the rum... No, you were right, the cutlass is a bad idea, I don't have a death wish... Fine, I'll get it myself." He shook his head then took some keys out of his pocket.

Loki tried to shuffle back further but groaned quietly again. Stark span round, looking straight at him.

"Jesus Christ... Bruce, get down here!"

Stark walked over to him cautiously. When Loki didn't move, Stark crouched down next to him.

"Jesus..." He repeated. "What the hell happened to you, Reindeer Games?"

Loki looked up at him with an expression like an animal caught in the headlights and tried to move away again.

Stark reached out to touch Loki's forehead then flinched away.

"Shit!" He cursed, shaking feeling back into his frozen hand painfully.

Loki's eyes shut tightly. He was in his Jotun form. Why did this have to happen now? If he hadn't been as good as dead before, he would be now the Man of Iron knew he was a monster. He closed his eyes tightly and let the darkness take him again, not wanting to be awake for his own end.


	2. Chapter 1

**If you can't tell, I'm sort of ignoring The Dark World. It's going to be awesome but I want to write Loki as, you know, innocent.**

**Language warning. Not sure if I said that on the last one.**

**(Updates probably won't be this fast in future...)**

**And thank you for all the favourites, follows and reviews, I really appreciate it!**

* * *

Tony was still crouched down next to the unconscious demigod when Bruce came down from the Tower.

"Hey, Tony wha..." He stopped mid-sentence. "What the...?"

"Yeah." Tony said quietly.

"That's... That's... Shit, Tony why is he here?"

"I guess he got banished like Thor."

Bruce stared down at Loki. "You _guess_?"

"He couldn't come here on his own, not looking like that."

"How are you so calm about this? What are we going to do? Call Fury?"

"God no."

"Tony, that psychopath tried to destroy Manhattan and take over Earth."

"And?"

Bruce stared at him in disbelief.

"He's been tortured enough, Bruce." Tony said quietly. Before Afghanistan, before all of this, Tony had produced weapons, he'd designed implements that had been used for torture. After his time in that cave, he'd decided he wouldn't let _anyone_ go through what had happened to him. "Stark Industries have been working on new medical technology. We should have enough in the Tower to keep him alive."

Bruce scratched his head awkwardly. "What about Clint and Natasha? They're still SHIELD agents. They'll kill him on sight."

"We're geniuses. We'll think of something." Tony shrugged, leaning down to pick up Loki's legs.

Bruce couldn't help but smile slightly at Tony's remark and started to reach for the demigod's shoulders.

"Don't touch his skin, he's put some kind of magic on himself." Tony said quickly before Bruce could touch Loki's pale blue skin.

"Why would he do that?"

"Have you seen the guy? Probably to stop them cutting him up worse."

Bruce nodded and picked up the demigod by his torn cloak, covered in barely-dried blood like the rest of his clothes.

"Shit, Tony." Bruce repeated, muttering this time, as they half dragged Loki into the thankfully-empty lobby of the Avengers' Tower.

Tony just raised his eyebrows in response, walking backwards towards the elevator. When the three of them were inside, Tony pressed a series of buttons on the panel then stood back again.

"What if someone wants to get in?"

"The only people working at this time are security and a couple of the guys in R&D and they won't be finished for hours. No-one except me ever leaves the tower at this time, only for missions."

Bruce nodded. "Won't security see this and want to know what's going on here?"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "The guys who work here have seen enough of me not to ask."

Bruce tried to think of a suitable response to that but gave up and asked another question. "What about SHIELD?"

"JARVIS sends them a fake feed when he knows I'm doing something suspicious. Their tech guys really aren't as intelligent as they think they are."

"You've thought of everything." Bruce commented.

"Someone has to." Tony smirked. The smirk quickly fell away as he

looked back down at Loki. "We've both heard Thor go on about Odin. Why would he do this?"

"Tony, this guy tried to take over a planet and kill everyone on it. What would you have done?"

"Not this." Tony said quietly, shaking his head.

The elevator stopped and Tony leant out and glanced around.

"All clear." He said quietly, as if expecting someone to appear from the darkness of the corridor. Bruce hadn't been to this part of the Tower before, preferring to stay away from most of the Stark Industries employees and work on his own projects. It was slightly scary being in almost complete darkness in an unfamiliar place but Tony didn't notice his discomfort.

Tony shifted his grip on Loki's legs and walked towards a room at the end with a heavy lock on the door.

"JARVIS, door and lights!" Tony yelled, not looking up as the door swung open.

They carefully lifted the demigod onto a steel table in the centre of the room. Various pieces of equipment hung from the ceiling, like a scene from some kind of weird horror movie.

Bruce looked around in awe. "What is all this?"

"X-rays, MRI, couple of new gadgets Stark Industries has been working on."

"Impressive." Bruce said, following Tony to the booth at the other side of the room. "Does it all work?"

"Should do." Tony said, quickly bringing up various files on the screens that filled most of the tiny room not containing controls for the equipment.

"JARVIS, start with the scans then go on to blood tests."

"Yes sir." The AI's voice echoed.

Several pieces of equipment descended from the mass on ceiling and lights flashed around Loki's unmoving form. Bruce watched curiously but Tony was completely focused on the screens and results.

"It would appear, Sir, that Loki is not in fact Aesir. This skin is his true colour, not a spell." JARVIS said after several minutes of scanning and analysis.

Tony's head snapped away from trying to decipher the screen to look at Loki. "What?"

"Thor said he was adopted." Bruce added thoughtfully. "He never said _where from_."

"Exactly, Doctor Banner."

"But can we still help him?" Tony said quickly.

"There is nothing in the Stark Industries database about his species. Relatively little can be determined from the scans due to his skin."

Tony nodded and picked up his tablet. Bruce gave him a look of warning.

"That's not a good idea, Tony, the last time you did something like this..."

"The last time I was bored, no-one's life depended on it." Tony smirked slightly, remembering the last time he'd hacked into SHIELD's computers and changed the entire system from the usual boring shield grey to bright red and gold. "And anyway, they were supposed to see that."

Tony typed in various lines of code and passwords rapidly. He found the file quickly and brought it up on the screens in front of them.

'_Loki Odinsson_' the file read. '_Species: Frost Giant (Jotun) [raised as Aesir]_

_Planet of Origin: Jotunheim [Asgard]_

_Capture Status: Incarcerated in Asgardian prison_'

Well, that last part was crap at least. Tony flicked through several long pages of the events in the desert and in Manhattan on the tablet until he reached '_Wanted Status: Preferred dead_'.

Typical Fury. He scrolled back to the top of the document and tapped the link to 'Frost Giants'.

"JARVIS, transfer all data on Frost Giants." He said out loud, hoping to god that there was enough information in there to save Loki's life.

"Files transferred successfully Sir."

"Better get on with it then," Tony said, turning to Bruce. "we don't have all night."


	3. Chapter 2

**The amount of favourites and follows this is getting is making me terrified that I'm going to screw up. Sorry in advance if I do.**

**And spoilers for IM3 if you hadn't guessed yet...**

* * *

Bruce's hands were covered in burns from the demigod's frozen skin by the time he and Tony had given up trying to stitch the worst of the cuts covering Loki. It was worrying how little they'd been able to do for him. Tony had been sensible for once and decided to try waiting until the demigod had woken up. There was no point injuring themselves in an attempt to save a man who would probably try to kill them the second he was awake.

They'd moved Loki to an empty room that Tony refused to explain the uses of on the floor of the Tower he used as his workshop. It was made of a pure white material that Bruce didn't recognise and had a door that was completely invisible from the inside until it was opened, perfect to stop a prisoner from escaping.

"We can't tell Thor about him, you know, at least not yet anyway." Bruce said finally, leaning against the wall but not taking his eyes off the Frost Giant's unmoving form.

"Why? We know he didn't have anything to do with this."

"Really?"

"He's been at his 'Lady Jane's' place down in New Mexico for three weeks," Tony said, rolling his eyes at the Thunder God's pet name for his girlfriend. "And you saw the way he defended Loki, even just before the battle."

Bruce nodded. "But he's probably better off not knowing for now. Can you imagine what'd happen if Odin found out?"

Tony grimaced. "Good point."

"And we don't know what he'll try to do when he wakes up." Bruce scratched his head thoughtfully. "Last time you could tell he was crazy just by looking at him. It might just be because he's asleep but I'm not so sure about now."

Tony nodded. "He was awake for a few seconds when I found him. Definitely didn't seem like the same Rock Of Ages we were fighting last year."

"You don't know much about Norse mythology, do you? He was the god of mischief and _lying_. " Bruce said quietly. "And everyone is different when they're begging for their life."

Tony shook his head. "His lips are stitched together. He wasn't speaking. It was his eyes, Bruce."

"We still can't trust him, not yet."

"I know that. I'm not stupid."

"I don't want SHIELD to get him either." Bruce sighed, looking away from Loki and down at his own feet. "I know what they do to people but we can't do anything for him, not till he wakes up."

"Don't know about you but I'm going I get Fury's birthday present. One of us has to have a sense of humour round here." Tony smirked.

"I'll stay around here for a while, see if he wakes up."

Tony nodded, pulling on his jacket and walking out into the workshop.

"JARVIS, keep an eye on Loki." He said quietly. He didn't want the bastard to start on Bruce if he woke up. It was unlikely he would even wake up and it was even less likely that if he did, he'd even be able to hurt Bruce or The Other Guy. Tony knew he'd become more than slightly paranoid since his home was blown up by that bastard Killian but it never hurt to be cautious, especially not around guys like this.

* * *

Loki's eyes opened slowly as he tried to stay asleep. Waking up meant being in pain, whether it be from injuries already sustained or whatever fresh persecution the two Avengers had planned for him.

He tried to curl his body up smaller but his limbs were restrained. He let his eyes open and bright lights almost blinded him. He felt his heartbeat quicken and heard something nearby mocking the sound of his pulse. Loki pulled against the chains around his wrists.

"Mr Stark has been informed you are awake, Mr Odinsson. Please refrain from struggling." A voice echoed from somewhere in the room.

Loki's head shot round, looking for anyone the voice could have come from but the room was completely empty. There were no windows and not even any sign of a door. The walls were a blank, dull white and the only furnishings others than the bed he was tied to were two chairs at the side of him, a small table and the Midgardian light sources on the ceiling.

Part of the wall slid away and Stark walked into the room.

"Morning." He said, not bothering with one of the ridiculous nicknames he'd used in the past.

Loki just looked at Stark with that same cornered-animal expression he'd given him before he'd fainted last time.

"Don't know why I'm bothering with small talk, your mouth's still wired. If you could turn back into the normal overly-pale god guy instead of the freezing blue Frost-Giant guy I can sort it out."

That's just what they'd want, to make him go back to his most vulnerable form.

"Or don't. Just don't get pissed at me and Bruce when your lips heal together."

That had the desired effect. Loki's red eyes widened with fear and slowly his skin turned white again. Stark took a strange looking piece of metal from his pocket and flicked a knife out of it. Loki flinched from the blade.

"Jesus..." Stark muttered. He held Loki's head back against the pillow with one hand and the demigod's eyes pleaded with him for some kind of mercy. He didn't want to die any more, not now.

Stark sighed and carefully started to saw through the strong wire holding his lips together. He pulled out the small, bloody pieces of wire. Loki opened his mouth experimentally and took a shallow, careful breath then coughed out the blood that had clogged his throat. He inhaled deeply, wincing slightly as the cool air whistled through the holes just outside his lips.

"Thank you, Stark." He whispered shakily.

Stark shrugged, examining the thick pieces of wire in his hands, an expression of pure revulsion on his face.

"Who the hell did you piss off?" Stark said quietly.

"Everyone." Loki murmured.

Loki expected Stark to flash his usual smirk but instead he just nodded slowly. The demigod flinched slightly; somehow understanding was worse than mockery. At least with taunts he knew where he stood. With empathy, anything could happen.

Stark turned away and started to leave the room without another word, leaving Loki chained to the bed. Loki stared after him.

The nerves hit now. He was scared, genuinely terrified. How long would it be before Barton or Romanov came to the room. They would kill him or worse the second they heard he was here.

Wait... Could Stark and Banner not have told anyone else yet? He'd thought it himself seconds ago, he'd be dead if the other Avengers knew of his presence.

That didn't mean they wouldn't now he was awake enough to suffer. Loki shivered painfully. He couldn't escape. He was a dead man.


	4. Chapter 3

**Sorry for how long this has taken, just started a new year at college so I've had stuff to do, geology coursework mostly. Geology coursework in the first two weeks back. Seriously. Not good.**

**Moving on...**

**I've only just noticed how OOC the speech has been. I've stopped reading fics for that in the past. This is my first attempt at writing any Avengers stuff so I'll try to improve it in this and future chapters. End of chapter is kind of rushed. Sorry.**

* * *

Tony opened the door to the room again.

He practically dragged Bruce into the sterile medical room. The physicist looked at Loki analytically, eyes quickly scanning over the demigod's wounds.

"He probably needs surgery, Tony, neither of us are qualified to do that."

Tony sat on the edge of the bed, opening a case that contained several needles and medical thread, a few hypodermic needles and a couple of bottles of some kind of clear liquid that Bruce couldn't see the labels on.

Tony seemed completely oblivious to the demigod's obvious terror. "I can do some stuff, I had to learn a few things when first started being Iron Man and you worked as a doctor in _Calcutta_. He can't be the worst thing you've seen." Tony paused then added. "And he's probably too weak to do magic but I don't want to find out. As long as he's outnumbered he might not attack."

"He doesn't look like he could attack anyone." Bruce said quietly, looking pointedly at Loki's bruised, bloody face. He was a lot thinner than he had been almost a year ago, his translucent skin seeming to be the only thing covering his feeble bones. Most of the skin visible under his more than slightly ridiculous Asgardian armour was covered in cuts, burns and deep purple bruises which hadn't shown up as much on his Jotun skin.

Tony shrugged, leaning over Loki and removing the restraints. Loki was obviously having to make a conscious effort not to flinch away from him.

"We're not going to hurt you." Bruce said, walking round to the other side of the bed, trying not to betray his own fear. "At least not any worse."

Loki gave a weaker version of the smirk Bruce had seen him use before. "You honestly expect me to believe those lies?"

"What other choice d'you have?" Tony said.

Loki looked away silently.

Tony quickly gave a smirk of his own then turned back to Bruce. "We need to at least get his armour off, that stuff's not helping."

Loki nodded despite the fact that the statement wasn't spoken to him and tried to sit up. Tony had been right about it 'not helping'; the metal was heavy and the weakened demigod fell back. Bruce caught him before his head could hit the metal end of the bed, supporting his pale shoulders as Tony unbuckled the leather straps attaching Loki's armour above his clothes. The billionaire found it hard to believe a guy who'd picked him up and thrown him out of a window could now be weak enough not to even be able to sit up on his own but Tony also remembered the bad shape he'd been in after only a few weeks in the cave. Loki had been fucked with worse and for longer.

Bruce could feel the demigod shaking in his grip as Tony pulled off his final pieces of armour, the plates on his shoulders attached to his green cape. He was wearing a plain green tunic under the armour, probably pretty standard clothes for Aesir who weren't princes or fighting wars.

Loki tried to take it off but froze when his arms reached above his head, letting out a quiet hiss of pain. Bruce pulled the shirt over his head and arms and saw the tears forming in the corners of the demigod's eyes. Bruce looked at Loki, wondering what could have changed him from the over confident mastermind to the wreck in front of him. His eyes strayed down to Loki's back. The skin was a mass of deep, oozing cuts, barely any flesh left undamaged.

"Oh god..." Bruce said quietly, unable to take his eyes away. "What the hell did they do?"

"I was whipped." Loki whispered. "It is not an unusual punishment."

"Maybe not on Asgard." Bruce said, his face paling. "Tony, half of this looks infected. We need to take him to a hospital or something."

"Yeah, 'cause taking the guy who tried to kill everyone to a regular hospital'll make us really popular." Tony spoke as confidently as usual but Bruce saw a flash of doubt on his face. He knew he was right, even if for once he didn't want to be.

"JARVIS, bring up the files on Frost Giants and Aesir." Bruce said to the room at large, still feeling slightly sheepish about talking to the AI.

"Yes, Doctor Banner." The English-accented voice replied.

Projections of the documents Tony had been studying earlier were projected onto one wall and Bruce quickly skimmed through both of them then took the first aid kit from Tony, examining the contents of each of the small bottles in the case for antibiotics. He filled one of the hypodermic needles from the correct bottle and turned back to look at Loki.

"I'm not going to say this won't hurt," He said quietly. "But it'll probably stop you from dying, at least for now."

Loki nodded slightly. He looked away as Bruce wiped the skin at the top of his arm with disinfectant but didn't so much as flinch as the needle sank into his flesh. That wasn't really a surprise, he'd obviously had to endure far worse. He flinched when Bruce's hand brushed against his back when the physicist was starting to clean the cuts but not as the warm water dripped into the wounds. Loki was scared. Bruce wasn't sure how to react to the complete change in character he'd had since the last time they'd met. The demigod was damaged, broken. He was in a state not that much different to the way Bruce had been around other people until fairly recently (Bruce had discovered the hard way that you couldn't stay scared of physical contact for long when you worked with Tony every day), although Loki didn't hide it as well.

He was quiet for the rest of the time Bruce and Tony were cleaning and either stitching or covering his numerous injuries. The fingernails were missing from his hands and most of the fingers were broken on his left. Loki had been cut, burnt and broken and whoever had been inflicting the damage hasn't wanted him to get off lightly.

Knowing how hard it was to harm Asgardians didn't exactly make this any easier. If Odin found out that either Tony or Bruce was involved he could make life very difficult for them, not to mention brief, but neither of them said a word about that, just continued to try to fix the wounds of the young god.

When they'd finally finished, neither of them particularly wanted to leave Loki on his own but they didn't want to be alone in the same room as a man who was most likely lying to them either.

"JARVIS can keep an eye on him." Tony muttered, trying to keep the information from Loki.

Bruce nodded reluctantly. "Probably."

"Could sound more confident. When have I ever let you down?" He said with a smirk.

Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, point taken. When has JARVIS ever let you down?"

"Never."

"Then he'll be fine."


	5. Chapter 4

**I write this chapter sat on a bus wondering why I am sat on a bus considering I am not actually due in college for two hours after aforementioned bus gets there.**

**Bit of a short one but I didn't want you to wait as long as last time.**

* * *

Loki awoke from another nightmare, feverish and gasping for air. It took a few moments for him to realise where he had fallen into that short, fitful sleep and that he was still there in the now darkened room of Stark Tower on Midgard, not the cell that he had languished in for a year. He evened out his breathing gradually, taking slow, deep breaths despite the protests from his cracked and broken ribs and rubbed his eyes with a shaking, bandaged hand. His whole body was stinging from the wounds the Asgardians had inflicted on him, despite the fact that the worst had been stitched up by Stark and Banner. It had taken them over an hour to clean and stitch his worthless body but even Stark had displayed some small amount of patience with helping him which was far more than what Loki knew he deserved. That's why they were the heroes, Loki supposed. That was what had made _him_ the villain.

He let himself lay awake but tried not to think in any more detail about his crimes and not daring to close his eyes again, even for a second. If he fell asleep, he'd have more of those terrible dreams and he would end up in the same state of terror he'd just banished.

Eventually he looked around nervously.

"JARVIS?"

A blue light flashed on at the other side of the room.

"Good morning, Mr Odinsson." A voice with an accent not dissimilar to his own said from somewhere around him. Loki still wasn't quite sure what to make of the voice but he knew that Stark seemed to act like it was a person. Maybe there was a man behind the lights and voice, he wasn't sure. Loki didn't bother to correct the voice about his name. He had no father so he was unsure of what to correct it _to_. He'd decided almost the second he had discovered his true parentage that he could never be Laufeyson.

"I will wake Doctor Banner." JARVIS's voice said when Loki didn't ask anything of him.

"Thank you." Loki said gratefully. After so long in seclusion, he was craving the company of someone who wasn't about to torture him. It wasn't as if being alone bothered him _that_ much, it never had, and he was still far from trusting the heroes but they were certainly preferable to his previous situation.

The lights turned on as the door opened.

Loki blinked slowly and turned.

Banner was stood in the doorway with a tray of food in his hands.

"Morning."

"Good morning, Doctor Banner." He said softly, trying to sit up.

Banner carefully placed the tray on the table next to the bed and put a hand on Loki's pale arm. Loki's first instinct was to flinch away but realised that the physicist was trying to help him.

"Thank you."

"Brought you something to eat," Banner said, gesturing at the tray ten placing it on the bed next to Loki. "Thought it was better I did than Tony."

Loki tilted his head, showing he was listening but not speaking through the food he'd already shovelled into his mouth, despite the way it made the holes in his lips sting. He'd barely eaten in the time he'd been imprisoned and not at all since his lips had been stitched together nearly a fortnight ago. He had been too nauseous to notice the previous night but now he realised how hungry he was.

"The guy practically lives off black coffee. I wouldn't inflict his cooking on anyone, even you."

Loki smirked slightly then continued to eat.

"What are you doing here?" Banner said finally, barely waiting until Loki had swallowed his last mouthful of toast.

"I'm being punished, Doctor Banner. I would say that was fairly obvious."

"But why _here_? Why New York, directly outside the Tower?"

"I assume the Allfather imagined your people would inflict the same pain that the Asgardians have," Loki sighed before continuing. "I would not blame you if you did."

"No. That's not what... God, no. They've already done enough."

"Nothing I did not deserve, even if it was out of my control."

"You're not the same guy who tried to take over." Banner said thoughtfully.

"I was not the master of my actions."

Banner shook his head, snorting quietly in disbelief, and started to walk towards the door.

"I'm telling the truth, Banner. What could I possibly stand to gain from harming so many people?"

Banner turned, not saying a word and keeping the look of disbelief but letting Loki continue.

"I'm not saying that I am innocent. I tried to kill my own _brother_ in a fit of envy but I was controlled, like he did to Barton and Selvic!"

"Who's 'he'?"

Loki snarled painfully and when he finally spoke it was through gritted teeth. "Thanos."


	6. Chapter 5

**I'm sorry for the irregular updates, I just upload them when they're written. Also apologies for the writing of this chapter generally. I've had a weird couple of weeks. And by weird I mean mostly depressing interspersed with moments of ecstasy. Pretty sure that most of this chapter reflects that, unfortunately**

* * *

The doorbell was ringing annoyingly. Tony ignored it, vaguely hoping Pepper would get up and answer it or JARVIS would tell whoever it was to stop.

"Tony..." She murmured after a few minutes, still half asleep. When he didn't respond, hoping she thought he _was_ asleep, Pepper rolled over and hit him in the face with her pillow to wake him up.

Fair enough, he guessed, it was Saturday and she'd been doing CEO stuff all week while Tony did comparatively nothing. He yawned and stood up, staggering out of the bedroom and answered the door in his boxers and the t-shirt he'd been wearing yesterday.

Bruce was stood outside. "Morning, Tony."

Tony stared at him, blinking slowly, barely able to understand what the other man was saying, never mind string a sentence together without his morning coffee.

Bruce looked behind Tony for Pepper and, when he saw she wasn't up, continued to speak.

"I need to talk to you about that... Uh, project... From last night." He said quietly, still cautious.

Tony continued to stare for a few seconds then shut the door in the physicist's face to go and get dressed and get a coffee.

Bruce stared at the door, breathing deeply to contain his anger. Tony was probably Bruce's closest friend but he could be a dick, and was, a _lot_. There was no other way he could put it. Bruce sort of understood why everyone else but Thor, a guy who was always pleased to find someone who could drink almost as much as him, found Tony at least slightly infuriating but they were a good team, for instance when Tony accidentally blew his lab up every once in a while, Bruce couldn't get hurt any worse by whatever radiation left the whole floor out of bounds for several weeks.

After about five minutes Tony opened the door again, dressed in a jeans and clean t-shirt, even if it was on backwards, and cradling a huge mug of coffee like it was his firstborn child.

"What?" He said, shutting the door behind him and walking with Bruce to where he'd left the demigod.

"He says he was controlled the whole time."

"Yeah, and I'm Audrey Hepburn. Next."

"He said that a creature called Thanos was controlling him."

"One; he's had a whole year to think this crap up. Two; who the hell is that?"

"No idea." Bruce admitted. "I looked it up but the closest I could find is Thanatos, the Ancient Greek personification of death."

"Guess that make sense." Tony shrugged.

"How?"

"If Rock of Ages and Point Break exist, why shouldn't the Greek guys?"

"I don't think that's right." Bruce said. "But I thought he was lying but the way he said it, Tony. He was terrified."

"He's a trickster god, Bruce. The guy lies professionally."

"I thought that to but what if he isn't? What if he's telling the truth? Just talk to him. You have more experience with lying than me."

Tony grinned.

"That wasn't a compliment."

* * *

"I don't see why I must go over this part, Thor will have told you." Loki said quietly, looking down.

Tony raised an eyebrow. Thor _had_ told them, several times in fact, but that wasn't the point. He had to get Loki to reveal everything for himself, not just have his brother to do it for him.

"I realised what I had done. It was that simple."

He carried on giving the demigod a pointed look.

"I saw my crimes. Both Thor and the Allfather offered me help and mercy but I knew... I knew I did not deserve it. I let go because I did not see an end to my anguish on Asgard. I hurt the people who had raised me as family, no matter what their real intentions."

"Then the Thanos guy took you over."

"It was not that simple. I fell onto the surface of a cold, barren planet, barely larger than an asteroid, far outside the Nine Realms. Not even an Asgardian can fall that far without bones breaking. I was dying, completely alone and in pain, all because I had been too much of a coward to face my judgement in front of the Odin. The Other found me..."

"Wait, who's 'the Other'?"

"It lives on the planet I fell to. It was the commander of the Chitauri army."

"And Thanos?" There'd been obvious disbelief in his voice for the whole time Tony had been speaking and Loki finally looked up again, his eyes bloodshot. There was something nearing the the fire he'd had the last time.

"The Other dragged me in front of Thanos. He saved me for reasons I, at the time, could not comprehend. He is a beast disguised as a man, Stark, you do not understand. He invaded my thoughts while I was weak, forced away what small amount of sanity I had left."

"Bullshit."

"Tony..." Bruce warned.

"No, Doctor Banner." Loki said indignantly. "What does he want me to say? That I _wanted_ this? That I wanted so many innocent humans _dead_?" The demigod looked visibly sickened and when he continued he was far quieter. "I'm a monster, I will not deny that. It is in my blood. The atrocities committed the last time I was in this city were not my own."

"You're not going to persuade me that easily."

Loki stood up, his unbroken hand curling into a fist, towering above Tony. The billionaire didn't flinch, matching the demigod's glare, even if he did have to look up.

"Nothing I can say can erase what was done in my name. The crimes are irredeemable. The images are burnt into my mind, Stark! All those people!" Loki's breathing became ragged and his arm was wrapped around his chest, holding his ribs. "You know that it is possible to be taken over, even if the spear failed on you! Why won't you believe me?"

"I've read your file."

Loki fell back onto the bed again, his legs giving in. "I've lived through over nine hundred Midgardian years! Those are the events of barely a week in which I was not in my right mind."

Bruce stepped away from Tony and towards the demigod. Tony could see him mentally re-examining Loki's wounds.

"Tony, he's not strong enough for this. Don't you believe him yet?"

"I believed him when he started talking about the Other. Just wanted to make sure."

* * *

Loki stared at Stark in disbelief.

From the way Banner looked at the billionaire, it seemed that he was unimpressed by the Man of Iron's behaviour but not as much as Loki himself. The demigod debated casting a spell on Stark but he didn't want to live up to the reputation he was desperately trying to shed and he wasn't even sure he was strong enough to do anything damaging.

Banner touched his shoulder lightly. It was obvious the scientist was on /his/ side at the moment, not Stark's, but Loki didn't know how long that would last or even if the apparent sympathy was real.

"You really thought that was a good idea?"

"Interrogate him while he's still too weak to throw me out of a window? Yeah."

It wasn't that Loki didn't understand the billionaire's distrust but he was too tired to deal with the suspicions and mind games. He let his gaze fall to the floor, not bothering to repress his obvious exhaustion, instead choosing to use his weakness to his advantage. Maybe they'd stop with the mindless questions.

"Are you alright?" Banner asked quietly.

"I do not know." Loki sighed honestly then added. "I'm somewhat tired."

Banner nodded. "Get some more sleep."

Stark started to speak but Banner flashed a glare at him.

"You do remember the last time _you_ nearly died, right? He needs some time to heal."

Loki had to wonder exactly how many times Stark had come close to death. He was a reckless man to say the least, Loki knew from the blurred memories of the times they had met before this.

"That was different."

"JARVIS had to get you out of the suit with a can opener. This is the closest anyone without billions of dollars worth of smashed up armour can get."

The two heroes stared at each other. Loki expected Banner to give in first but eventually Stark turned to Loki quickly.

"Got my eye on you, Snape." He said, spinning on his heel and leaving the room.

"Why does Stark give me these peculiar names?" Loki wondered out loud.

"It's not just you, he's the same with pretty much everyone."

"But _why_?"

Banner shrugged. "No idea."

"And who is this 'Snape'?"

"He's a wizard from these kids books..."

"Allow me to hazard a guess; he is the villain." Loki interrupted.

"Kind of."

"How can someone be 'kind of' a villain?"

"They thought he was until near the end. Turned out he'd been a hero for most of it, they just didn't know."

* * *

**Consultation: do you think that Pepper should find out about Loki staying in the Tower or not? If you send me a message or review or something of what you think, I'd be grateful.**


	7. Chapter 6

**I'm posting this from Iceland! It's cold but at least I have wifi, which is somewhat of a surprise as I am currently laid on the sofa of what is essentially a centrally heated shed.**

**I couldn't resist that Potter cliché in the end of that last chapter.**

**Also, my friend left her account logged on my computer and I didn't realise so I've replied to a few reviews on her's. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused.**

* * *

The room was dark again when Loki opened his eyes. Banner had left him to sleep after his...disagreement with Stark that morning and he'd happily accepted the opportunity but now he was well rest. This might be the only opportunity he got to leave his cell and escape the Avengers. The problem was that part of him wanted to stay here, where he knew that, at least for the moment, he was safe. His lips still stung and blood still seeped into his mouth. Although he knew it wouldn't take long for his wounds to heal, the feeling of having his lips stitched together would stay with him for the rest of his life. It wasn't dissimilar to some kind of choking claustrophobia. Every time he'd woken up since that day, he'd been surprised that he was still breathing and hadn't choked on his own blood. The other torture they'd inflicted haunted his twisted dreams, visions of pain and madness and an inability to control his own actions.

Loki sat up slowly and looked around the darkened room, knowing that no matter where he was now, he'd have to leave eventually. It wasn't like the Avengers would welcome him. He was still shocked by the mercy he'd been shown by Stark and Banner.

Speaking of which, one of them had dropped a t-shirt and a pair of blue trousers made from the thick material that a lot of Midgardian clothes seemed to be made of. The clothes were far too baggy for him, especially in the gaunt, emaciated state being locked up for a year had left him but they probably had been before as well. He had to assume that the clothes had been bought for Thor at some point. He pulled them on despite the size and owner, just glad to finally be out of his blood-stained Asgardian clothes.

The door was still locked, impossible to see in the darkness against the white walls but Loki knew where it had been. He looked at the wall where the door had been, using as much magic as he dared to waste to open it. He knew he'd probably have to fight his way out of this one, no matter how much of his story Banner and Stark had actually believed. Loki limped into the darkened room. Around him, metal skeletons were built up from a floor that was cold against his bare feet. Most were the hollow shells of ruined vehicles, many of the panels missing or dented, all in various stages of reparation. Stark had obviously chosen a fight with the wrong person if this was all that remained of what Loki had to imagine had once been expensive pieces of machinery. In one corner was one of Stark's armoured suits, obviously older than the one Loki remembered him wearing, hung from the ceiling by hooks through the back and chains attached to the arms. This was obviously Stark's workshop, although Loki had to admit that he'd been expecting more suits and less vehicles.

Loki picked his way between the shells, having to keep an eye on the floor to stop himself falling over tools and more pieces of metal or stepping in the pools of grease covering a significant proportion of the floor.

He unlocked the door at the other end other the workshop and walked out into a dark corridor. There were several doors further down the corridor but no light came from under those either. It was either late or early, the perfect time for him to leave.

Loki padded to the end of the corridor silently and wandered through the open door. It was quiet here, regardless of the time. He had half expected JARVIS to raise some kind of alarm when he'd left his cell but it was silent, there were no signs of any Avengers rushing at him, ready to kill him on sight.

There was a staircase leading down, which presumably meant he was at the top floor of the tower, somewhere near to where the machine that had opened the wormhole had been. Loki shivered at the memory and started down the stairs to try and find a way out.

The first door out of the stairs was several floors below him and he wandered down slowly, trying to be as quiet as he could. He was unsure if agents Barton and Romanov were in the building but if he made the tiniest sound, they'd hear him. The way they operated as a unit was almost supernatural. Of course, under Thanos' control, Loki had killed a third of their unit and mentally shattered another. He knew that regardless of who would inflict it, his killing of the Son of Coul would not go unpunished and, honestly, he could never even wish to get away from that particular crime unscathed. The man had been more courageous than he'd ever thought a human could be.

Loki pushed on the door handle in front of him carefully. It opened, not requiring any more magical unlocking, and Loki stepped out onto the balcony that had once held the name 'STARK' in giant letters but now only retained the 'A'. This was the last place he'd tried to kill his brother, he remembered. The amount of times he'd attempted that particular crime, both under control and out of his mind, was shameful.

Stark was near the doors on the opposite side, leant against the railing with his peculiar phone in one hand and a glass of some kind of Midgardian alcohol in the other. He didn't look up and Loki thought the billionaire handy seen him until he spoke.

"You haven't tried to throw me off here yet, I guess that's a good sign." He said conversationally, continuing to tap at the various displays on the translucent blue screens.

"Do you not want to know how I escaped?" Loki asked quietly, the movement stinging his torn lips. Hunger and the heat of anger had numbed the pain earlier but now it returned with a vengeance and he didn't dare try to heal it with magic. The Allfather had probably found some waypoint have the wounds cursed.

"You got out with magic." Stark shrugged, finally looking up from the screen and raising it to show Loki security footage of him leaving the cell.

"I was hungry." He said, lying only about his motives for escape. He /was/ still hungry. He had almost starved to death in his prison on Asgard. Where before he'd been slim, now he was skeletal. Even Stark would be able to believe this particular lie.

Stark nodded and dropped the phone into his pocket then wandered to the doors on the other end of the balcony. Loki followed him.

The more he thought about his situation, the more he knew he was stupid for thinking that he could fight his way out of the building, even with magic. He was practically swaying on his feet from weakness and exhaustion, a ghastly mixture brought on by his numerous injuries and malnutrition.

Loki flinched as he entered the room. Despite repairs and redecoration, this was the room where he'd finally been defeated, remembered only in his especially realistic nightmares and the blurred visions of Thanos's control.

Stark leant against the bar, flashing Loki a smirk. "I feel like we've done this before."

"Not unless that was intended as a threat" Loki said quietly.

"No. I _am_ going to offer you a drink again, though."

"I doubt that would be a wise decision in my current state."

Stark shrugged, refilling his glass and wandering towards the elevator at the other side of the room.

"Where are you going?"

"You wanted food, right?" Stark said, rolling his eyes.

Loki nodded.

"Come on then."

He nodded again and followed Stark to the elevator. The billionaire pressed several buttons then leant back against the wall, looking at Loki. The demigod looked away uncomfortably but he could tell he was still being stared at.

"How the hell are you still alive?"

Stark said finally as the elevator doors opened.

"What?"

"You should be dead."

"I'm aware of that. What I did..."

"No," Stark interrupted. "Biologically, you shouldn't be alive. You've been tortured and starved and then fell from a _different planet_. A regular person would have dropped dead of shock by now _at least_. How are you _alive_?"

"You seem to be forgetting, Stark, I'm not a 'regular person'. Not by anyone's standards." And that was putting it lightly, he knew. He was stuck between species, not Aesir and not entirely Jotunn, at least not any more.

Stark just shrugged and stepped out of the elevator. Loki followed him into the kitchen of a darkened apartment.

"Is anyone else here?" Loki whispered, not wanting to wake whoever lived here.

"Yeah, this is Natasha's place. She'll be here in a minute" Stark grinned at the horror on the demigod's face. "No. Pepper's out at a conference. Got the place to myself for a few days."

"That was cruel, Stark."

"So was throwing me out of my own window."

Loki nodded, head falling to face the floor.

"Hey, cheer up Reindeer Games. People have done worse things."

"Worse than kill their own brother and try to enslave an entire planet?" Loki said pointedly.

"Well, no." He smirked. "But about a month after I first hired Pepper she kicked me in the crotch so hard I spoke an octave higher for best part of two weeks and look at us now."

"A short man in flying armour and the boss of his former company?"

Stark smirked again. "That's going on our Christmas cards this year."

"What?"

"Christmas cards."

Loki shot him a confused look then continued to search through the cupboards for something he could even vaguely recognise as food.

"Asgard doesn't have Christmas." Stark muttered, seemingly talking to himself more than Loki. He reached into one of the cupboards and three a bag of something at Loki.

He opened the bag and glared suspiciously at the contents, thin triangular things covered in some kind of orange powder.

"They're Doritos. You eat them."

Loki nodded, taking one out of the bag and staring at it.

Stark glanced at his watch and started back to the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to work."

"When it's this late?"

"Its not like I'd get any sleep anyway." Stark shrugged.

Loki nodded and Stark left him alone in the kitchen. He spent a while looking at the Doritos again, wondering how humans could eat something that appeared to be made of thinly sliced wood, eventually abandoning the bag in favour of curling up on Stark's sofa and falling into a sleep filled with his usual nightmares.


End file.
